Laborers: not worthy of their hire

As part of its Labor Day reporting, NPR tells us that if you want job security, being a software engineer  is your stairway to heaven.

In their story the founder of an app-development company whines about wishing he could get away with paying half the salaries he does, and having to “make the workplaces as fun as possible”.

Here are some of the things I find wrong with this story:

The notion that being a developer brings security in our current workplace is completely fallacious. Here in the Valley They Call Silicon  there are thousands of them (and QA and SDEs and tech writers and program managers) among the long-term unemployed. Of those that are working, a sizeable number are not Full Time Employees (FTEs) of a tech company, they’re contractors being paid much less than they used to and not getting benefits like health coverage, retirement contributions or bonuses for successful project completion.

In fact, I’d call them the “long-term exploited”. But you won’t find them in this article

The folks who do seem to be doing well in the industry are the tens of thousands of South Asians over here on H1B visas, or—even better—those still in India or China at tech centers where the local corporations can get software developed at costs far below what they pay even the contractors here. Nowhere in this story is this class of employee mentioned

You’ll also notice that the whinging about the workplace having to resemble a frat house is indicative that the only candidates deemed attractive are those in their 20s, who are naïve enough to think of beer in the fridge and a Foosball table as valid replacements for decent healthcare insurance or a retirement plan instead of the cheap bread and circuses that they are. Clearly companies that lay out the snacks and games are not looking for techies who have relationships outside the office and would like time away to enjoy them—you know, anyone who’s passed the age of 35 and wants more out of life than code.

Again—the reporter hasn’t brought up this element in his report.

I’m really disappointed that NPR put out such a sloppy, one-dimensional and slanted piece on a subjects as important as this.